Finance staff win biggest bonuses in UK

Finance sector workers represented more than one-third of the £37 billion ($57.5 billion) paid out in bonuses to British workers in the latest financial year, despite making up 4 per cent of the workforce.

Employees in the finance and insurance industry took home bonuses totalling £13 billion in fiscal 2011-12, or 35 per cent of the total bonuses paid in Britain during the period, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.

The payout was down 9 per cent on the previous year, but still works out at an average bonus per employee of £12,000, or nearly nine times the national average.

The average was £1500 lower than last year, but finance remains well ahead of other industries.

Mining and quarrying remained in second place, with an average bonus per employee of £6900. Information and communications was third, with workers receiving an average payout of £4400.

The impact of the bonuses paid to employees of nationalised banks Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland was such that it lifted the figure for the average of public sector bonuses by £200 to £300.

Despite this, the average private sector bonus at £1700 was five times that in the public sector.

However, the ONS cautioned that private sector employees received lower regular pay than their public sector counterparts and that bonuses make up a larger part of private sector workers’ pay packets.